How Responsive Designs Can Improve The Experience of Website Visitors

Are you interested in learning if your site is responsive, go to ami.responsivedesign.is/ and enter your URL. It will show you how your site appears on a PC, phone, tablet and laptop. You should also check on an actual device, however, the tool is very helpful at catching errors before you go too far in building your site.

There are sites, such as designmodo.com/responsive-design-examples/, which offer great examples of sites with responsive designs. They also cover common problems and how to get around them. For example, they suggest using pie charts instead of data tables, so users with small screens don't have to scroll vertically and horizontally if they need to enlarge the data.

Responsive websites change their layout to adapt to the user's screen size. Google recommends webmasters use responsive designs, although any site which renders well on mobile devices is fine. You could also have a standalone mobile site (m. URL), but this requires the most upfront work and expense. There are also adaptive sites. These are not common though. When a web designer creates an adaptive website, they design layouts for at least six common screen sizes. Obviously, responsive designs are the most popular as they work for all screen sizes and require the least expense to develop.

Examples of sites who have perfect responsive designs include The Boston Globe. It adjusts from one to three columns depending on the user's screen size. The Sasquatch! Music Festival website also manages a beautiful responsive design, even with videos and superb graphics.